17 Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now (May 2024)

What are the best horror movies on Netflix right now?

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) is one of seven Elm Street movies currently streaming on Netflix.

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Netflix streams over 3,000 movies at any given moment. The movies change daily. So keeping track of all the best horror and scary movies on Netflix in 2024 can be a chore. This list though is designed to help you quickly find all the best horror movies on Netflix. It’s updated constantly to ensure every movie is actually still on Netflix. If you’re looking for a good scary movie on Netflix, this is the best place to start. And if you’re looking for something to watch during the month of Mother’s Day, take a look at our recommendations for 9 Mother’s Day Horror and Thriller Movies on Netflix in May 2024.

Best Horror Movies on Netflix — May 2024

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Freddy gets much more quippy beginning in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) attempts to take out the last of the Elm Street kids in this fantastic entry in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. The return of Freddy’s nemesis—and the one who got away—Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and the emergence of the “Dream Warriors” challenges Freddy to be more inventive than he’s even been before when it comes to slashing.

Fear (1996)

Reese Witherspoon in Fear (1996).
1996 was a breakout year for Reese Witherspoon, thanks in large part to her role in Fear.

Fear helped propel its stars Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon into the acting stardom. It is a stalker movie in which Wahlberg’s character, David, becomes increasingly violent when he becomes obsessed with the younger Nicole (Witherspoon). It can be a bit cheesy in a 1990s kind of way, but that’s why it’s so much fun.

Creep (2014)

Mark Duplass in Creep (2014).
Creep was partially inspired by weird experiences the director/co-writer/costar Patrick Brice had using Craigslist.

Creep (2014) is a strange and darkly humorous found-footage movie about a man, Aaron (Patrick Brice), who answers an ad offering $1000 for a day of “filming services.” The ad was put out by Josef (Mark Duplass), a man who requests that Aaron spend the day recording him as a video diary for his unborn child. Josef claims he has a brain tumor that will kill him soon, but his strange and erratic behavior makes Aaron believe there is something else going on. Creep is a quirky horror film perfect for when you’re in the mood for something very, very different.

Under the Shadow (2016)

Under the Shadow (2016)
Under the Shadow is set in Tehran, Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s during a time when Iraq performed “strategic bombing” on various Iranian cities. (pictured: Narges Rashidi)

With her husband away during the Iran-Iraq War, Shideh (Narges Rahidi) and her young daughter are left behind in their apartment under the constant threat of attack. Shideh is determined to not let outside forces, both war and her country’s restrictive laws, keep her from living her life as she chooses. However, a dark presence inside her home threatens to break down what remains of Shideh’s will.

The Babysitter (2017)

The Babysitter (2017)
The Babysitter was directed by McG (Terminator Salvation, Charlie’s Angels) and written by Brian Duffield (Love and Monsters, Underwater). (pictured: Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell, Samara Weaving, Hana Mae Lee, and Andrew Bachelor)

Cole, a shy 12-year-old boy who lacks in self-confidence, has the best babysitter, Bee. Cole decides to see what Bee does whenever she’s babysitting him and he’s supposed to be asleep, but what he finds puts Cole in serious danger: Bee and her friends are part of a secret satanic cult. The Babysitter is a blast of a horror comedy that plays out like a cat-and-mouse chase as Cole tries to escape Bee and her friends, and people keep winding up dead.

Verónica (2017)

Veronica (2017)
Verónica is inspired by the real-life case of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro who died in 1991 under mysterious circumstances.

Verónica is a Spanish film about a teenage girl who becomes possessed after using a Ouija board with two of her classmates. In the days after trying to contact her deceased father, Verónica (Sandra Escacena) is seemingly the focal point of an increasing amount of supernatural activity. Part haunted house movie and part demonic possession story, Verónica feels familiar in many ways, but it is still a highly effective horror movie. Verónica is so effective and scary that some people reported that they couldn’t even finish it.

Cam (2018)

Cam (2018).
Cam was written by Isa Mazzei and is partially inspired by her own experiences as a camgirl.

Cam is a psychological thriller about a camgirl, Alice (Madeline Brewer), whose identity is stolen by woman who looks and acts exactly like her. Is this an extremely convincing case of identity theft, or is there something else going on? Cam is tense and creepy, and it is a great first feature from director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)
47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a standalone sequel to 47 Meters Down (2017).

47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a survival horror movie about a group of young women who become trapped in the submerged ruins of a Mayan city with ferocious sharks. The setting is interesting, the action is good, and for a shark-attack movie it has enough of a gimmicky twist to help it stand out from the rest.

Inhuman Kiss (aka Sang Krasue, 2019)

Inhuman Kiss (2019)
Inhuman Kiss was very successful in its home country, and it was Thailand’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2020 Academy Awards (though it didn’t make the final nominations).

Part monster movie and part tragic romance, Inhuman Kiss is a fantastically unique horror movie. The monster in question is a krasue, a supernatural entity that takes the form of a floating head with some of its missing body’s internal organs still attached to its neck. In Inhuman Kiss, a young woman in a love triangle is cursed to roam around at night as a krasue.

Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020)

Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020)
Vampires vs. The Bronx is a great PG-13 horror comedy.

The looming threat of gentrification takes the form of a group of vampires in Vampires vs The Bronx. Three teens (played by Jaden Michael, Gerald Jones, and Gregory Daz IV) discover a plot to infest the Bronx with nests of vampires, and they take it upon themselves to save their community.

Fear Street (2021)

Fear Street (2021).
The Fear Street trilogy was released on three consecutive Fridays in July of 2021.

Fear Street is trilogy of horror films that combine to tell one large story. The first movie is set in 1994 and feels like a teen slasher reminiscent of Scream (1996). The second film is largely told in flashbacks to 1978 and is made as an homage to campground slasher movies like Friday the 13th (1980). And finally, the final part of the trilogy flashes back to 1666 to tell a story of a witch hunt with a strong resemblance to The Crucible (1996).

Incantation (2022)

Incantation (2022)
Incantation became Taiwan’s second highest grossing domestic horror film of all time.

Incantation is a found-footage movie about a mother who is cursed after taking part in the desecration of a religious ritual while she was pregnant. Six years later, the mother is plagued by supernatural events that threaten her daughter’s safety. The movie has been touted as one of the most terrifying movies to come out of Taiwan, and it is at least partially inspired by true events. It may also be the scariest movie currently streaming on Netflix.

Re/Member (2022)

Re/Member (2022)
Re/Member is based on the web novel (and later manga series) Karada Sagashi (translation: Body Search) first published beginning in 2011.

Re/Member is a time loop movie that unfolds like a survival game mixed with Japanese supernatural horror. It is about a group of high-school students who are tasked with participating in a morbid scavenger hunt. At night, they must search their school to find the body parts of a murdered girl so they can piece the girl back together. They are stalked through the building by the “red person” who kills them in horrible ways, but when they die they wake up at home and are forced to relive the same day over and over until they complete the “body search.” Re/Member is a bit cheesy in a Japanese-teen-horror kind of way, but it’s also a lot of fun.

X (2022)

X (2022).
The sequel to X, titled MaXXXine, will be released in 2024.

X is a fantastic modern slasher made as a throwback to the early days of the golden era of slashers. Set in 1979, the story is about a group of filmmakers attempting to secretly shoot a dirty movie in a cabin rented on the land of an old man and his wife. The old woman, Pearl (Mia Goth), takes a particular interest in the movie production, specifically fixating on the alluring and charismatic star of the show, Maxine Minx (also Mia Goth). But Pearl’s interest can turn to murderous anger in a flash, making it a long and dangerous night for anyone on her and her husband’s land.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023)

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is based on a manga which also serves as inspiration for an anime series of the same name.

Akira Tendo is overworked and underappreciated in a career that turned out to be nothing like he expected. But when a zombie apocalypse breaks out in Japan, Akira is finally free to live his life the way he wants. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is an entertaining zombie comedy that isn’t afraid to get extremely goofy with its premise.

The Conference (2023)

The Conference (2023)
A team-building getaway turns into a slaughter in this Swedish slasher comedy.

The Conference is a great slasher movie with good kills and just the right amount of comedy. In many ways it feels like a standard slasher in which a bunch of people in an isolated location are picked off one by one by a masked killer, and it executes the formula very well. The movies also takes a few interesting turns towards the end which helps make it feel unique.

Thanksgiving (2023)

The killer from Thanksgiving (2023) wearing a John Carver mask.
Thanksgiving was one of the more well-received slasher movies of 2023.

In 2007, Eli Roth created a fake trailer for a ridiculous (and fictional) slasher movie titled Thanksgiving. Sixteen years later, a full-length version of Thanksgiving was released. The movie plays out like a somewhat modern remake of whatever the movie represented by the 2007 fake trailer would have been like. Meaning, while the trailer looked gory, mean, and ridiculous, but Thanksgiving (2023) is moderately gory, fun, and campy.

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Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.